A return to their social movement roots union organizing efforts in the late twentieth century /

by Martin, Andrew William.

Abstract (Summary)

The objective of the following thesis is to explore organizing efforts in the 1990s by
drawing upon social movement and organizational theory to analyze the organizing
activities of a sample of local labor unions from 1990-2001. I begin by placing the 1990s
in historical context, demonstrating that recent efforts to revitalize the movement are
similar to other periods of debate in the history of the movement. It appears that certain
processes, notably existing leadership’s desire to remain in control of the movement,
have prevented significant change in organizing. I then explore the mechanisms unions
have at their disposal to recruit new members in the 1990s, which include the National
Labor Relations Board certification election and the corporate campaign. As unions
move towards an increasingly conflictual relationship with firms, they have adopted the
corporate campaign to overcome the weaknesses of the certification election. Data from
the 70 unions indicates that although the NLRB is used much more frequently by unions,
nearly as many workers are organized through corporate campaigns. The reason for this
is twofold: 1) corporate campaigns have a much higher success rate, and 2) the typical
corporate campaign involves significantly more workers than the average NLRB election.
To examine various organizing processes, including repertoire choice and success, I first
draw upon resource mobilization theory, using the unique circumstances surrounding
union organizing to expand this perspective. I find that the sources of endogenous
resources, including the parent organization, and, to a lesser extent, membership, affect
the type of tactic used, but not the outcomes. Human resources devoted to organizing
have a strong effect on the rate of corporate campaigns and their outcomes, but no effect
on NLRB elections, except for unions that use both tactics. Leadership indicators were
also employed to analyze resources devoted to organizing, repertoire use, and outcomes.
In general, bureaucratic structures had lower rates of organizing, as did unions with large
staff. The results indicate the importance of the local union in the organizing process.
iii